Carol Higgins Clark followed in the footsteps of her mother, Mary Higgins Clark (1927–2020), writing bestselling mystery novels.
- Died: June 12, 2023 (Who else died on June 12?)
- Details of death: Died in Los Angeles of appendix cancer at the age of 66.
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Carol Higgins Clark’s legacy
Higgins Clark studied at her mother’s side – as a young woman, she would retype her mother’s manuscripts. She also helped her mother develop those novel drafts further, discussing how to perfect characters, dialogue, and plots.
Despite her early experience with writing, Higgins Clark didn’t initially intend to become a writer herself. Instead, she studied acting, and she appeared in movies and TV shows including several adaptations of her mother’s books – “Where Are the Children?” “While My Pretty One Sleeps,” “The Cradle Will Fall,” and others.
But even as she pursued her acting career, Higgins Clark began writing, and she published her first novel, “Decked,” in 1992. It featured private investigator Regan Reilly, who Higgins Clark would follow through more than a dozen other books, including “Snagged,” “Jinxed,” “Zapped,” and her most recent book, 2015’s “Knocked.” Higgins Clark also co-wrote several novels with her mother, including “Deck the Halls” and “He Sees You When You’re Sleeping.”
Higgins Clark on working with her mother
“I learned from her, certainly, but the fun part is like changing dialogue in her books. She uses old fashioned expressions, and you say, ‘Mom, no 30-year-old would use that expression,’ or in one of her books she had the girl going out on dates trying to find out who killed her friend through the personal ads. And she has her meeting these guys at bars in New York City. And I kept saying, ‘Mom, nobody goes there.’ So I changed the names of all the bars and People magazine said, ‘Clark offers a well-informed tour of New York’s singles haunts.’ So that was my big contribution to that book, so if you call that influence… yeah!” —from a 1995 interview with Peter Anthony Holder
Tributes to Carol Higgins Clark
Full obituary: The New York Times
